It's not something for home brewers at this time, but I think it has potential.

There was a time when dry wash resins were state of the art, and for a while, they were not feasible for home brewers either. Once the resins became available, homebrewers latched on and figured out how to make dry wash resins work on a hobby scale.

I read all of this as the usual "it's probably fine, with some reservations as percentages increase, but we don't want to deal with fuel quality issues and warranty claims." I would hazard a guess that standard DPF issues and presumably lube oil dilution issues likely apply.

I've never driven the Cayenne Diesel. A number of years ago, I enjoyed my VW Touareg V10TDI so much that I kept it and sold my gasoline Cayenne S. My V10TDI was a 2004 model pre-DPF car, which eliminated a lot of the issues with high biodiesel blends; indeed, it ran fine on homebrew B100. That was a great machine that I drove to over 100k miles, and only swapped out when I needed a truck for carrying and towing capacity. Been in my Cummins Dodge since, for 75k miles and counting.

In addition to your article another method not discussed is the two tank solution. Set up essentially like an SVO system except that an in-line heater just before the IP is not necessary. It is necessary however to set it up with a return line to the tank and not loop it. The reason? You want the excess hot fuel returning to the tank to help warm it up.

The best way to do it is by setting up two completely separate filters and fuel delivery systems, as this will greatly reduce the purge time required from miles to minutes.

I have successfully run a 2 tank system with B100 in the hot tank here near Montreal all winter with temps dropping in the -20C range with no fear of getting side lined due to a plugged filter or fuel lines.

No matter the cloud or pour point of the biodiesel when tested at a stand still the reality is that during travel the returning fuel will prolong this by heating up both the lines and tank.

I've been spending a few hours each week editing and revising some of the website as well as pulling information from the defunct svototorial.org site into the make-biodiesel.org site. So far I've updated about a dozen pages out of over 160. If you have a page that you would like to see revised, let me know, and I'll move it to the top of the list.

Over the last month or so I've been editing and updating the www.make-biodiesel.org website one page at a time. So far I've finished a dozen pages, just 180 left to go. I've also identified six more topics that need articles. The three that got the heaviest edits are:

Biodiesel Magazine hosted a webinar on December 20, 2017 with two presenters and an Q&A session. The webinar lasts one and a half hours and does get into some detail that I found interesting. (even if it did go a little slow for me) It is free, but they do ask for some information from you. I don't think that any of the information you provide needs to be accurate.

My main take from the webinar is that there have been major improvements in cold flow improving additives in the last five years. In 2012, there were no additives that could change the cloud point of B100; now there is. They use two technologies, the first is an additive that slows the rate at which 'waxes' or saturated methyl esters fall to the bottom of the tank, and the second is an additive that slows the clumping together of small seed crystals into larger crystals.

Rick

This message has been edited. Last edited by: RickDaTech, January 01, 2018 05:26 PM

I'll comment on changing biodiesel cold flow properties. I speculated that using tertiary butanol (an alcohol) to mask the acid end of the fatty acid will produce a fuel with different physical properties. I made isopropyl biodiesel via acid esterification of free fatty acids. I expect that the Fischer esterification using free fatty acids and anhydrous tertiary butyl alcohol might make a product with superior cold flow properties. I have not been able to easily obtain t-butanol here in Texas. The government suppresses people being able to buy chemicals for whatever reason.

This link is to the table contents for a 647 page book on biodiesel and biofuels. I was able to download the full book at my local library. You should also be able to download it for free from your local library.

The Renewable Fuels Standard put out by the Environmental Protection Agency increased the total amount of biodiesel that must be blended into the nations fuel supply for 2020 to 2.43 Billion gallons.

The EPA has been granting waivers to mostly small refineries to provide economic relief to the added cost of renewable fuels. The industry expects the EPA to issue 275 million gallons worth of exemptions for biodiesel which would offset the 330 million gallon increase for 2019.

The proposed standards were not as generous to the ethanol industry with waivers continuing to outpace increases in the requirements for ethanol.